PS4 goes on sale in UK after midnight launch – Certain PSN features disabled in Europe

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Since Tuesday, eager gamers queued up for more than 24 hours in London’s convent gardens after the PlayStation 4 was up for sale after its midnight launch. A thousand others opted to order their consoles online.

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Fans camped during the night to be one of the first ones to experience the Sony’s latest console. Xbox One was released a week earlier in the UK.

The consoles were available at GAME stores which opened at midnight only to limited number of customers who had pre-ordered the console. Limited stock also caused the stores to offer the consoles on a first-come, first-serve basis at the ‘PS4 lounge’.

Pre-orders for PS4 had also reached their limit during its launch day during August making this the only chance for consumers who would like to buy the consoles before Christmas.

Imran Choudary who waited from Tuesday afternoon was leading the queue outside the PS4 lounge #4. “It was my goal to try and be one of the first people in the country to get hold of the PS4 and I am so happy to have now achieved that,” he said.

GAME mentioned that they had to open 300 stores at midnight and pre-orders have doubled up four times compared to PS3. ASDA supermarket chain also had 144 of its 155 stores open during midnight to sell the consoles. Another 400 stores also hosted special midnight openings on 28th November.

PS4 lounge had a performance by Tinie Tempah just before the midnight launch. He said he was exited to be a “part of gaming history.”

“This is bigger than anything we’ve ever seen before and its fantastic to be partnering with Sony for the launch,” said Martin Gibbs, CEO of GAME.

The PS4 is upfor sale in UK from Friday and is priced at £349.

Update: Sony also said in the blog post that the certain PSN features are disabled in Europe, which doesn’t include online gaming, friending, sharing videos, trophies and live broadcasting of games.

About John W Arthur

John is the head of our IT Security team and he writes about Security, IT news on The Next Digit. He was the Employee of the Year 2013 for his selfless support and efficiently setting up the whole security infrastructure. He also occasionally writes on "IT Sec Pro" Print Media of Sweden. All posts by John